♜ The Order of the Blue Rook

Structure

The Blue Rook will be divided into three major departments: The Civic Administration, The Civic Journeymen, and the Civic Guardians. These three departments are meant to act as a division of labor between those jobs that require a migrant lifestyle, those that require a residential lifestyle, and those that require militaristic training. The structure of the three departments allows for citizens of all walks of life to give back to their community regardless of their personal skills, capital, ambitions, or responsibilities.

The positions in the three separate divisions are identical.

Master of the Duchy

Titled as Master of "associated duchy" and the highest ranking member within a duchy, under the Grandmaster. Their duties are to work directly with the Duke or Duchess of the domain.

Dean of the County

Titled as Dean of "associated County", the Dean acts as the head of their city economically as well as of our military forces within the County. Their duties are to organize and facilitate Order operations within their domain's borders along with the Director.

Director of the County

Titled as Director of "associated County", the director acts as the head of their city's military forces as well as our economic projects within the County, Their duties are to organize and facilitate Order operations within their domain's borders along with the Dean.

Administrator

Titled as Administrator of "associated operation", the administrator acts as a supervisor to members working within their assigned administration.

Fellow

Titled as Fellow "individual's given name", these members act as general workers for the order. This position is the entry rank of full members though some may act as guardians or journeymen, receiving those titles based upon their assigned operation.

Aspirant

Titled as Aspirant "individual's given name", this position is for the citizenry working towards becoming a full member of the order.

The Civic Administrators

Referred to as the admins, will work for the duchy in a stationary location with some travel between settlements within their domain operation. The scope will be described later in the phased system for admins. Admins will work by identifying issues and potential projects within their borders. Issues may include food shortages, lack of class mobility, lack of capital, security, or any range of negative conditions that would reduce the potential of their domain. Admins are charged with investigating these conditions to find the route cause. This will allow the Order to provide the required knowledge to organize a civil works project to remedy the situation or inform the authorities of the domain so that they may take appropriate action. Every project would be geared towards publicly affecting a settlement or region in a sustainable way and would be maintained by the resident admins.

The resident admins will be required to visit the different establishments within their assigned domain. The time spent during their travels will center around developing and maintaining regional contacts, acquiring general knowledge of the domain, and working on civil works projects or establishing profit generating enterprises to fund future projects.

Although these travels will be important, admins will spend most of their time in a stationary location, relying on members or contacts associated with the Blue Rook to gather information and complete projects in the name of the Order. This time will be spent caretaking the assets of the Order. These assets may include the raw materials required for civil works projects, a library of information, income generating ventures, and the members depending on the location of the administrative office. This stationary location will work as the conference center, member living quarters, asset warehousing, and local community gathering center.

The Civic Journeymen

Referred to as the journeymen, will be a cluster of migrant workers that will travel throughout the duchy to supply services required, described in the journeymen phase system. During times of need, a journeymen cluster will travel while working on projects and developing assets in each settlement along the journey. It is intended for settlements to view the journeymen caravans as a festival event. When caravans arrive, the journeymen will offer services not normally available to the citizens while also offering the opportunity to be educated in a craft. Often these services will be rendered at cost or with a slim profit. These profits are meant to fund the establishment of the Order and provide capital to inject back into the settlements in a sustainable way. For this reason, most journeymen will be skilled craftsman that wish to ply their trade regularly while offering a service to the duchy.

The order intends to make a contract with guilds and other establishments of higher education to require that apprentices work for the order to complete their apprenticeship. This would allow for talent to be exploited by the duchy in a mutually beneficial way. Apprentices gain experience with capital provided by the order while earning pay and providing services to the duchy. Guilds will benefit by allowing the order to provide the capital for apprentice’s training. While some apprentices will choose to work locally and join the administrative department of the Order, work may not be available and others will realize that their time may be better spent with the journeymen.

Local merchants may wish to join the caravan as they transport their wares, aiding the national economy and will be offered free protection from the caravan guardians. Adventurers may choose to join the caravan, partaking in small jobs along the way and acting as unskilled members of the journeymen. This aspect of the journeymen is intended to help with saturation of skills and follows our ethos of helping those in need to achieve their dreams and gain class mobility otherwise unavailable to them.

The Civic Guardians

Referred to as the guard, will work as the national security force within the Order’s domain of operation. The guardians act to safeguard the trade routes and assets of the Order while also acting as a reinforcements and logistical support for the standing army in times of war. Guards will be those citizens trained in the arts of combat and may choose to work as stationary members or itinerant guard for the Civic Journeymen. They will be expected to maintain their combat skills, patrol trade ways, guard settlements, instruct militias, and aid the order in non-combatant roles such as capital transport and resource harvesting.

Phase System

The phase system creates a priority schedule for the Order to flexibly operate by and an incentive device to follow this schedule for third party organizations commissioning the Order. Each phase must be completed in its entirety to advance to the next phase. Should the requirement of maintaining a phase no longer be met due to disaster, growth, or war, the department must revert to the previous incomplete phase. The phases work by establishing the ability to operate and costs of commissioned projects, which both follow Maslow's hierarchy of needs and must fall under one of the phases outlined. Competition with other establishments for commissioned projects will only occur if those establishments do not meet the standard capabilities or costs to produce a good or service. This standard is determined by the Order’s own capabilities using sustainable processes with a maximum of 20% profit margin to any good or service. In addition to this profit margin, which is divested back into a county or duchy works fund, any project that is associated with a phase higher than the phase of operation within the domain will gain an additional penalty of 10% per phase level. This is to promote proper prioritization of civil works projects and the additional funds gained from such commissioned projects would be used to complete the current phase level.

Any project commissioned by the Order to complete the current phase will be done at cost without a profit margin. Each department of the Order has its own phase system.

Phase System: Civic Administration

The Civic Administration, referred to as the Administration, will be required to follow the below outlined phase system. Projects to complete these phases will be funded by the County Works Fund created through other profit generating projects. This fund may also be used to expand and enhance the operational capacity of the local Order branch.

An ongoing discussion of these phases is conducted on this Discord

1st Phase: Self-Sufficient Basic Needs

This phase is designed to create locally sustainable access to food water and shelter. Projects would include the creation of subsidized housing, clothing donation centers, food storage or generation projects, and wells or other water collection structures. These projects are to be sustained or operated by the local population.

2nd Phase: Self-Sufficient Basic Security

This phase is designed to locally secure the basic needs, personal assets, and lives of the local population. Projects would include the construction of fortifications, training and armament of local militias, and the creation of alarm systems against wildlife and bandit attacks. These projects are to be sustained and operated by the local population.

3rd Phase: Self-Sufficient Preventative Security and Recovery

This phase is designed to promote preparedness for disasters and attacks so that the loss of life and assets may be minimized. Projects will include emergency caching of rations and temporary housing, road construction, dangerous wildlife and criminal bounty programs, constructions and building upgrades to restrict deviancy, and constructions or building upgrades to increase detection capabilities of deviancy or malicious activity. These projects are to be maintained and operated by the local population.

4th Phase: Self-Sufficient Growth

This phase is designed to promote local growth of the economy and citizenry. Projects would include low cost housing, large enough for families to grow, increased food storage, and public labor projects or resource purchasing centers for individuals to earn unlimited capital while contributing to the community. These projects are to be sustained and operated by the local population.

5th Phase: Self-Sufficient Class Mobility

This phase is designed to promote class mobility for the local citizenry. Projects include public workstations, libraries, coppices, and tool rental services. These projects are to be sustained and operated by the local population.

6th Phase: 3rd Party Sustainable Basic Needs Improvements.

This phase is designed to promote enhancements to basic needs and the coverage area that sustains those needs. Projects include the creation of way-stations, diversification of nutrients, and potable water migration structures. Maintenance and Operation will be the responsibility of a partnered third party or the Order.

7th Phase: 3rd Party Sustainable Security.

This phase is designed to utilize third party organizations to secure physical welfare and assets for a population. Projects include security warehousing, hospitals, guard barracks, watchtowers, and light beacon warning systems. Maintenance and operation will be the responsibility of a partnered third party or the Order.

8th Phase: 3rd Party Non-Sustainable Economic Boosts

This phase is designed to boost local economies enhancing the exploitation of non-renewable resources. In this phase, all non-renewable resources are tapped in a non-sustainable way, giving a quick economic boost to employees while the resource is refined for use. The resource will not be released to the public in one lump sum as it may flood the market and potentially crash it. Instead the resources will be strategically released over time or stored as a strategic resource. Maintenance and operation will be the responsibility of partnered third parties or the Order.

9th Phase: 3rd Party Sustainable Class Mobility

This phase is designed to sustainably increase the skill diversity of the duchy through third party resources. These projects include creating and funding schools, apprenticeship programs, and scholarship packages to be divested to approved workers. These projects are to be maintained and operated by a partnered third party or the Order.

10th Phase: Public Happiness

This phase is designed to increase the mood of the population. Projects include beautification and monument construction, festival and event organization, and promotion of public gathering spaces. These projects will be maintained and operated by a partnered third party or the Order.

Phase System: Civic Journeymen

The Civic Journeymen, referred to as the Administration, will follow the above outlined phase system for the Civic Administration with the exception that their funding comes from the Duchy Works Fund for civil projects and the Duchy Military Fund for military projects which are outlined in the Civic Guardians phasing system below.

Phasing System: Civic Guardians

The Civic Guardians, referred to as the Guard, will be required to follow the below outlined phase system. Projects to complete these phases will be funded by the County Military Fund created through other profit generating projects. This fund may also be used to expand and enhance the operational capacity of the local Order branch. This phasing system does not take effect until the civil administration phasing system has reached phase level 3. Until the administration phase level 3 is completed, all County Military Funds are to be used to complete Administrative phase projects. The guardian phasing system will begin at phase 4.

An ongoing discussion on this phase is conducted on this Discord.

Phase 4: Major Route Security

This phase is designed to secure trade routes of the county connecting both economic and militaristic points of interest. Projects include the creation and maintenance of roadways, creation of soldier and arms transportation, and creation of guarded checkpoints. These projects will be maintained and operated by the Order or affiliated 3rd party.

Phase 5: Fortification and Surplus Creation

This phase is designed to enhance fortifications within the domain for strategic use by the military. These settlements are to be stocked with resources for large scale operations within the domain and include housing, board, and armaments for the duchy’s army. These projects will be maintained by the Order but may be operated by another military agent of the state.

Phase 6: Mobility Enhancement

This phase is designed to enhance the capabilities of the standing army by creating a supply networks, ships, and war mounts for a mobile force. The project should include the large-scale creation of wagons and mass breeding of pack animals. Ration supply points should be stocked and maintained throughout the county so that un-sustainable food requirements do not damage the local population during times of war. These projects will be maintained and operated by the Order.

Phase 7: Offensive Capability Enhancement

This phase is designed to enhance the offensive capabilities of our army in times of war. Projects would include rapid resource removal teams, siege engines or their materials and schematics, and unconventional weaponry.

Phase 8: Research and Development

This phase is designed to refine and enhance the capabilities of offensive and defensive forces within the duchy. This phase my include mock infiltration programs to test defenses of the state, new militaristic arms and architectural testing, unconventional warfare development.

Phase 9: Mega-Fortification Projects and Psychological Warfare.

This phase is designed to create fortifications that have a psychological effect on enemy combatants. These projects may include large scale curtain walls, large scale defensive landscaping, large scale battleships and siege engines, and exotic war-breeding.

Phase 10: Unconventional Transportation and Storage

This phase is designed to create unconventional methods for our armies to travel, transport goods, and store resources that would otherwise never be discovered by enemy forces. These may include underground fortresses, underground roads, or floating fortresses that may relocate to any location.

Business Model

The Blue Rook will require a constant influx of capital to support our ambition to develop the duchy on a national level. While affiliated with the state, the Order does not wish to be a burden to the governing body. Instead, the Order seeks to create self-sufficiency through enterprises designed to create capital in a sustainable way. These enterprises may include low cost housing, order affiliated merchants, natural resource development of public land, real-estate, long-distance trade, and locations for the collection of goods below market value. These centers provide a stable income for raw goods producers and allow for the natural market to flourish as only excess goods would be sold to the collection center.

Income will predominantly be driven by real-estate and trade. Real-estate will be purchased and leased for income while developing projects. As our caravans move about the realm, import and export trade will further fill the Order’s coffers as we can sell and buy capital in the most lucrative locations.

Our main expenses will be the salaries of our members, to be paid on an annual basis at a flat rate regardless of skill. Secondary expenses will include capital for non-commissioned civil works projects, as commissioned civil works projects will require clients to fund their endeavor. To reduce costs further, a petition will be made to reduce or eliminate taxes on order operations as all funds will be divested into the community.

Nobility and Noble Titles

The Order forbids the membership of titled nobility with the exception of Counts and Countesses, which may only hold positions of "Director", "Administrator", "Fellow", or "Aspirant". Should a member attempt a hostile Coup against the current state leadership without permission from the Duke or Duchess, the member will be stripped of his or her position and be branded as a traitor to the Rook. Members of fallen noble families that remain in good favor with the duchy may be considered as hereditary members of the Order and thus may enter the Order as a full member.

Should a pretender usurp a seat of noble power, the Rook may be called to arms against the usurpers. Should this occur, the Rook may act as caretakers for the estate until leadership grants the title to the appropriate entity. Upon granting of titles, the Rook is to vacate their leadership position of the region and resume normal activities.

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